1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to devices which treat data and processing of the data as objects, and process information by using object networks expressing the objects in a graph. The present invention particularly relates to an information processing device which defines system constraints in terms of inter-object relations in the object network to control the constrained processing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Information processing systems such as those directed to a specific application field allow system designers to easily build systems by modeling the systems as an object network. Such systems may be designed to provide users in the specific application field with clear descriptions of system conditions and executable operations. Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 5-233690 discloses one of such systems, and is entitled "Language Processing System based on Object Network" (a disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference).
This processing system classifies objects into noun objects and verb objects, and builds a reference model as an object network which represents the noun objects as nodes and the verb objects as branches. In this reference model, a function of a verb object is applied to a noun object at a given node to obtain another noun object as a target object when this later noun object is located down on a branch having the name of that verb object. An information processing mechanism to achieve this operation is provided in this processing system.
FIG. 1 is an illustrative drawing showing an object network for image drawing processing. In FIG. 1, "None", "Point", "Point seq", "Line", etc., represent noun objects, and "define", "draw up", etc., represent verb objects.
Take an example of drawing a picture on a display. There is nothing on the display at an initial state. Then, a selection of a point is made on the display by a mouse or the like to move into a next state where the point is drawn. Selection of several points achieves a state where a series of the points is formed on the display.
Such data as a point and a series of points are treated as noun objects. A verb object (e.g., define) is applied as a function to a noun object (e.g., Point) to obtain a target noun object (e.g., Point seq.). In this manner, each state of the data of the drawing objects is provided at a node as a noun object, and verb objects represent branches between the nodes to create an object network as shown in FIG. 1. Such an object network enables construction of an image processing system for drawing pictures.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No.7-295929 (a disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference) discloses an interactive image information device based on a common platform function. The common platform function is aimed at prompting effective processing in an object network through interactions between a client and a server. To this end, the common platform function displays items of visualization targets, as well as instructions and data which the user intends to use. Further, the common platform is provided with various windows for displaying results from server executions, and a communication manager in the common platform mediates between the client and the server in terms of a data display format or the like.
The present invention develops and expands the functions of the language processing system based on the object network disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 5-233690 and of the interactive information processing device based on the common platform function disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No.7-295929. In so doing, the present invention sets an object to provide a system which enables easy development of applications having visualization functions, interactive functions, and cooperative functions.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system which enables easy development of applications having visualization functions, interactive functions, and cooperative functions.
Further, there is a need for a mechanism which relates constraint processing with the concept of a model to reveal a software structure as well as definitions of data and constraints and to clearly define inter-object relationships in a specified application field, and, thus, establishes a clear connection between object relationships and created processes.